


Being Human

by Anonymous



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Astral has a neurological disorder, Contains medical stuff, Mentions of narcolepsy, Mentions of night terrors, Mentions of sleep paralysis, being human isn't easy, mentions of seizures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 02:06:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12025830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Astral has become human but it is not as easy as everyone hoped. Astral's brain is going through things it never had to before, this left Astral with a neurological disorder. Luckily, he has lots of support.





	Being Human

It all started when Astral became human.

It was brutally true what Eliphas said, Astral didn’t belong there anymore. He had no purpose there. He was dying and no one could do anything to help him, that is until Eliphas genetically engineered him. 

He admitted he did a lot of wrongs and to repay Astral for all the suffering, he made him human. His new mission was to live as an individual. 

It was difficult creating a whole new species from someone who was already artificially created. 

He had to get new organs, he needed his DNA and stem cells rearranged, and the biggest part was he needed to rewire his brain. 

Yuma was happy to offer his blood and tissue samples for Eliphas to work with. The result was Astral ending up looking a lot like him. 

It was so difficult, it was such a difficult process. 

It took months and Astral had given them various scares. For awhile his lungs were underdeveloped and he struggled to breathe on his own, another time his heart actually stopped and he needed to be revived. 

He was just so weak. 

Of course, he had been put in a medical coma and he felt nothing, Yuma ended up feeling pain for him. Astral probably would have told Yuma he has too much empathy if he were conscious. 

Eventually, Astral grew stronger. His skin began to change color and he became tan like Yuma. The markings on his face were replaced by freckles. 

He still had no male or female genitalia. He remained non-binary for his own comfort, sex organs were not a priority for him. 

He now had a stomach and Yuma was very excited for him, he just knew Astral would love being able to eat on his own. 

His brain now resembled more of a human, gaining him the ability to sleep and other necessities. 

Yuma wasn’t concerned at first. In fact, he was more worried about Astral going into cardiac arrest again. 

He had no idea Astral’s greatest enemy would be his own brain. 

…

Kaito and Faker were Astral’s doctors. They had medical knowledge and were the only people who would know how to treat Astral. A regular doctor would never be able to work with the former alien. 

Haruto was sort of like Astral’s nurse. He was very comforting and often distracted Astral if something uncomfortable was being done to him. He would even monitor Astral as he underwent sleep study. 

Aside from very issues with sensory overload, sleep was a big issue for Astral. 

Kaito diagnosed him with narcolepsy across various spectrums. Astral definitely did show the symptoms. 

Sometimes he’d suffer from sudden sleep attacks. He would be perfectly fine one minute and the next he’d be out like a light, even if he was talking he would just drop off mid-sentence. 

Eliphas made sure that Astral got 8 hours of sleep, that much was wired into his brain. However, Astral didn’t exactly get those 8 hours at night like he should. He would sleep in random spurts and it was nearly impossible to wake him to ensure he would be able to sleep at night. 

There would be days where Astral would take a sudden 5-hour nap and only sleep a little while during the night before he would crawl into Yuma’s attic and watch his tv. 

Part of Astral narcolepsy was sleep paralysis. This happened frequently and occurred when Astral was in between wake and sleep. Astral would often find himself there, his brain not knowing what to do. 

He’d be mobilized, unable to move as he hallucinated, his eyes slightly open. Yuma could never tell just how aware he really was during those times. 

Then finally, the night terrors. They were the absolute worst. 

Astral would suddenly scream and thrash, sounding as if he is in pain. Yuma had to hold him and keep him still sometimes. After awhile they would cease but it always made Yuma feel so uneasy. 

Astral would never remember what happened or what he was dreaming of. 

Kaito told him this was all normal for someone with narcolepsy, but it just didn’t feel right. Yuma often felt guilty that he was normal and Astral had to suffer from so many problems.

Yuma brought Astral over to Heartland Tower for Astral’s routine checkup, this time he decided to stay overnight for Astral’s sleep study. Astral had a particularly bad night the night before and Yuma decided he couldn’t just leave him alone, he needed to know what was going on. 

Haruto was the one who answered the door. 

“I brought your favorite patient.” Yuma said happily, Haruto responded with a big smile. 

“Come in.” Haruto gestured to the entrance of the door. 

Haruto lead them to the medical room where Kaito was already getting set up. 

“Brother, they’re here.” Haruto said. 

“Good.” Kaito replied, “Astral, I want to show you your last MRI scan. You’re due for another in a few weeks.”

Astral walked over and looked at the picture containing his own brain. Yuma stood patiently in the distance. 

It grew darker outside and it was close to the time where Astral would go into the sleep study room and get attached to all the sensory wires. Astral left to change into his pajamas and Yuma spoke up. 

“I’ve decided I’m going to spend the night here and look after Astral with you guys.” Yuma announced. 

“You can, but can I ask why?” Kaito questioned. 

“He’s, uh…He’s not doing so good lately and I’m worried.” Yuma said. 

“Define ‘not good’ for me.” Kaito asked. 

“Well, so far the night terrors have happened every single night this week. He’s been drifting in and out all day yesterday. He almost collapsed because he fell asleep standing up.” Yuma told him, “I feel like…It’s getting worse. I want to know what goes on in his head when this happens.” 

“So he didn’t suffer from sleep paralysis.” Kaito looked for clarification. 

“I don’t think so. On Monday he was sorta sleeping with his eyes half open but it didn’t look like he was struggling with anything, not like he normally does.” Yuma said. 

“So just night terrors…” Kaito seemed lost in thought until Astral came back into the room, “Alright, you can stay but I’m not in charge of you. If you fall asleep that’s on you.”

“Alright!” Yuma exclaimed happily. 

“You are staying, Yuma?” Astral asked curiously. 

“Yep! I have to look after my best bud!” Yuma said with a big smile, keeping his good mood up for Astral’s sake. 

“Forgive me for saying so, but that seems strange. I thought I have improved with my sleep, I don’t remember anything terrible happening.” Astral said, “Yuma, did something bad happened?”

“Astral.” Kaito interrupted them before Yuma could reply, which Yuma was very grateful for, “It’s time to get you hooked up.” 

“I will see you tomorrow, Yuma. Goodnight.” Astral said with a smile. 

“Goodnight. I’ll be right here on the other side of the window. If something scary happens just call out to me.” Yuma affectionately rubbed Astral’s shoulder. 

Astral joined Kaito into the other room with the bed and machines lay. Astral had wires glued to his forehead, the monitor would watch his brain waves as he slept as well as his eye movement. 

Astral had no issues falling asleep. As soon as he closed his eyes he would be out cold, but what comes next was always difficult. 

The computer on their side of the room began to show a thin line going up and down. 

“Hmm, he’s already entered REM sleep. That surely was fast.” Kaito said just after a few minutes. 

“What does that mean?” Yuma asked, eager to learn. 

“It means he’s dreaming.” Kaito said, “He’s in a deep sleep just after about 6 minutes, which is abnormally fast…But he seems fine as long as he’s getting rest. He seems to be doing good.” 

Watching the slow rise and fall of Astral chest almost made Yuma tired. Haruto had brought over a cup of coffee for his brother which gave Yuma an idea. 

“Hey Haruto, can I have a cup too?” he asked. 

“Uh, okay.” Haruto left to go get more. 

“Really Yuma? I think you’re too young for it.” Kaito gave him a glare. 

“I have to make sure I stay awake tonight! So I can look after Astral!” Yuma said with a burst of confidence, Kaito only seemed to find his ‘matureness’ embarrassing. 

“Or you could just take a nap. I do that while either my father or Haruto is looking after him.” Kaito said, taking a sip of his coffee. 

“Nope! I need to be here the whole night!” Yuma said. 

Haruto came back in and handed Yuma a cup. Yuma drank it quickly and then recoiled by the overwhelming bitter taste. He nearly spits the whole thing back into his cup. 

“This tastes terrible!” he whined.

“That’s because you aren’t old enough.” Kaito said in a sort of ‘I told you so’ tone. 

“Ugh, that was so gross. I feel like I’m going to start shaking as bad as Astral does.” Yuma exclaimed.   
Both Kaito and Haruto froze in place. 

“Shaking?” Kaito questioned slowly. 

“Yeah, just last week Astral started to shake really weirdly. All of a sudden he’d just start shaking so bad, he’s only done that sometimes though. He’s still so thin, I feel like the cold gets to him. This gross coffee would probably get to him too.” Yuma said obliviously. 

“That sounds like…” Haruto tried to speak but then stopped. Kaito then finished his sentence for him. 

“A seizure.” Kaito said, Yuma felt his heart drop.

“A seizure?” Yuma’s voice trembled, “Aren’t those bad? How do you know?” 

“Haruto grew up with epilepsy.” Kaito explained, Haruto remained quiet, “The way you described it…It sounds like he was having a seizure.”

“Holy shit…” Yuma covered his mouth in shock, “I had no idea.” 

“Please tell me you didn’t touch him. You aren’t supposed to touch someone who’s having a seizure.” Kaito practically begged, the guilt in Yuma’s chest grew. 

“Well, I would try to rub his back to calm him down-“

“Yuma, listen to me!” Kaito bellowed, “If this happens again, do not touch him.” 

Yuma gulped and nodded his head. 

“I should reschedule the MRI, I need to figure out what happened as soon as possible.” Kaito took out his pocket calendar and notebook. 

As he wrote it down, Yuma sat in silence until he spoke up. 

“This is my fault…” Yuma’s voice was low and quiet.

“What? Yuma, it’s his brain that’s causing this.” Kaito clarified. 

“That’s exactly why it’s my fault!” Yuma shouted, tears already streaming down his eyes. Haruto slowly backed up, Kaito simply stared quietly. 

“I was the one who came up with the idea of Astral becoming human. I was the one who offered DNA! I don’t understand! How am I normal while he has so many problems!” Yuma cried, “He’s going through so much pain because of me…His body wasn’t meant to be human, he brain wasn’t meant to be human. He’s suffering and there’s nothing I can do about it…I caused this…” 

“Don’t say that.” Kaito said sternly, then Yuma looked up at him. 

“Don’t say that, he was dying! He was dying and you gave him a second shot at life.” Kaito said, “So he has a neurological disorder, that’s okay. Everyone isn’t perfect. Haruto grew up sick and with epilepsy, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t live!”

Yuma remained quietly through Kaito’s rant. 

“Astral isn’t meant to be human but that doesn’t matter. He is human now. He’s going to go through struggles but he’s alive, and he’s by your side where he wants to be. He wants to be alive, he wants to live. You gave him life and he hasn’t stopped telling me how grateful he is to you for it.” Kaito said, “He’s happy…That’s all that matters.” 

Yuma sniffed and rubbed the remaining tears out of his eyes. 

“We can work through this. Medication can help him, you and I can help him.” Kaito told him, “Don’t give up on him. He wants to stay here with us.” 

“Thank you so much, Kaito.” Yuma said through tears. 

After a few more minutes of talking, Kaito told Haruto to go to bed and the night time monitoring began. 

Astral was fine for awhile. He hadn’t moved or shifted. He lay perfectly still on his back, still peacefully dreaming. 

Kaito ended up showing Yuma some of Astral’s older records and also shared his experiences with Haruto’s epilepsy and informed Yuma what to do in case it happened again. Apparently, sensory overload had a lot of effect on it, Yuma took note to make his home a safer environment for Astral. 

After awhile, the brain scan started to changed pattern. The line became sporadic and indicated that Astral was growing panicked, he was about to have a night terror. 

Astral twitched a bit, just small movements of his eyelids and fingers, but it quickly grew worse. His breathing grew faster and he started to whimper. 

Yuma stood up to go in but Kaito pulled him down, “You can’t disturb him. We need him to go through this for research.” 

“But he’s in pain! I have to help him! He shouldn’t be alone!” Yuma insisted, but Kaito had a strong hold on his arm. 

“He’s going to be okay Yuma. This is going to pass.” Kaito assured him, but then Astral screamed. He screamed as if he was gravely injured. 

Yuma’s protectiveness kicked in and he removed himself from Kaito’s grasp, barging in, and leaned over Astral’s bed. 

“Do not wake him up!” Kaito yelled from the other side. 

“I’m not going to!” Yuma shouted back, he almost wanted to say that it was impossible to wake Astral up. He knew very well that the night terror had to run its course, but he just couldn’t let Astral do it alone. 

He leaned over and scooped Astral into his arms and gently petted his hair. 

“Yuma!” Astral cried out, his eyes still closed shut, still stuck in dreamland. 

“I’m here for you.” Yuma assured him in a hushed voice, “I’m here.” 

Just a few minutes later, Astral’s crying grew quieter. His once rigid form began to relax in Yuma’s arms. 

Yuma looked back at Kaito who sat there bewildered. 

Yuma slowly laid Astral back down and tucked him in. He placed the wires Astral pulled out of his head back on and a more accurate brain wave scan reappeared on the computer. 

Yuma came back out and sat next to Kaito who was staring at him in shock. 

“How did you do that?” Kaito asked him. 

“I don’t know, whenever I’m around him, even if he’s still asleep, he just seems to calm down. I think he unconsciously knows I’m there for him.” Yuma answered, feeling content being a now relaxed Astral peacefully asleep once more. 

“Yuma, that is the fastest he’s ever gotten over a night terror since the day we first started the study.” Kaito said, Yuma now understood his shock. 

“Really?” Yuma questioned. 

“Usually his night terrors stretch a little over half an hour…His night terror today only lasted a few minutes.” Kaito told him, “Yuma, I think you’re the key to helping him work through his narcolepsy. This is the most improvement I’ve seen in months.” 

“You really think so?” Yuma asked, a bright smile appearing on his face, “I’m helping him?”

“Yuma, you’ve been helping him this whole time and I haven’t even noticed. I need to write this down.” Kaito scrambled to find a pen and paper, “Yuma, if you can, please stay here longer. I think I’ve finally found a coping mechanism for him.”

A wave of relief and gratitude flew over Yuma. In this world that seemed to be filled with so much wrong, he still managed to be the one person who could help Astral- The one who could look after Astral. It was always him. 

Whatever Astral dreamed about, whatever haunting him at night could be alleviated with Yuma’s own presence. Just that made everything worth it. 

So Astral wasn’t perfect. Eliphas may have designed him to be perfect when he was created but there is no such thing as perfection in a human life. 

Yuma was already excited to see Astral’s smile in the morning. 

That morning came quicker than usual. Yuma closed his mind one minute and then the next he reopened them to see Haruto sitting next to him instead of Kaito. 

“Good morning!” Haruto greeted him. 

Yuma almost wanted to lecture him, it was too late for Haruto to still be awake…But then it hit him. It was morning. 

“Oh man…” Yuma groaned, “What time is it?” 

“It’s around 7 AM. Brother is taking a nap for awhile since Astral hasn’t woken up yet.” Haruto replied. 

Yuma glanced over at Astral, still peacefully sleeping in the last position Yuma remembered seeing him in. 

“He’s still asleep?” Yuma asked, “Hasn’t woken up at all?”

“Not since that night terror brother talked about.” Haruto said, “Well, brother did say Astral’s mind was almost trying to wake him up. He was stuck in between being awake and asleep again but Kaito upped Astral’s medicine dose in his IV drip and he’s been asleep ever since.”

“That’s the longest he’s lasted.” Yuma added, “Astral usually doesn’t sleep well during the night, he’s usually up at 4 or 5.”

“He’s getting better!” Haruto said with a smile. 

Yuma smiled as well. 

“Oh! Um, brother wanted me to remind you about what to do when Astral looks like he’s about to fall asleep during the day.” Haruto pulled out a piece of notepaper, “Just so you remember.”

“Make sure not to keep him in a warm that’s too warm, make sure he’s active and sitting down for so long.” Yuma listed what he remembered, Haruto nodded as he accurately listed everything. 

“When he’s having a hallucination you need to gently coax him out to it so you don’t cause him shock.” Haruto added. 

“Right.” Yuma agreed. 

“Brother also wrote something else down, for if Astral gets another seizure…” Haruto trailed off for a bit, “He knows better than anyone about how to deal with stuff like that.”

Yuma waited patiently for Haruto to gather all his thoughts together, “To prevent it try to keep him away from certain triggers…Kaito believes it could have been brought on by bright lights, loud noises, too much stress, and sensory overload. When it does happen you aren’t allowed to touch him and…Make sure he isn’t stressed out afterward for him to recover better. Brother says he’s going to scan Astral’s brain soon, just to see if he developed epilepsy or he just got it from sudden stress.” 

“I understand, Haruto.” Yuma agreed, “I’ll be careful.”

Haruto looked towards the door behind him and then leaned over to Yuma, whispering into his ear, “Be sure not to act all overbearing as brother does. Astral will notice, I noticed too.” 

“Your brother and I are very different.” Yuma laughed out. 

Kaito emerged from the back door looked very refreshed from his nap, even more so when he found that his patient was still getting much-needed rest. After all, the more Astral slept at night the less likely it would be for him to have a sleep attack. 

They talked for a bit, Kaito didn’t elaborate on Astral’s new medication too much because he wanted to wait until Astral heard it too. 

Eventually, Astral got up on his own, slowly but surely. It took him awhile to gain more awareness of his surroundings, for a second Yuma could tell he couldn’t remember where he was, but Astral was smart and he was back to his old self. 

“I upped your dose of this pill, the round white one.” Kaito showed it to Astral to ensure he knew what it was, “You’re doing good, Yuma was right though, you are having an increasing number of night terrors and you seemed to have trouble getting out of sleep this morning. To make sure you don’t enter sleep paralysis I’m prescribing you something new, it’s going to be a green capsule.” 

Astral nodded along in understanding. 

“Yuma also informed me that you’ve suffered from some seizures that didn’t show the last time I gave you a check up so I’m rescheduling your MRI for next week.” Kaito said, “I also want to check if you’re at any risk of blood clots or aneurysms.”

“Alright, thank you, Kaito.” Astral said with respect. 

“Take care of yourself. If you ever feel like you’re too overwhelmed, don't be afraid to tell someone.” Kaito reminded him, “Especially Yuma.” 

“Especially me!” Yuma repeated. 

They all bid goodbye leaving Yuma and Astral to walk home. Astral, who was still used to walking, found his legs growing weaker the longer they walked so Yuma offered to carry him on his back.

“Uh,” Yuma decided to break through the quietness, “I know you don’t remember much of what happens when you’re asleep, but it looks really scary when it happens.”

“I suppose so.” Astral mumbled, resting his head against Yuma’s shoulder, “I do not do it on purpose.”

“I know you don’t…Hey, Astral? Can I ask you something?” 

“Alright.”

“Does it…Bother you when you can’t control what your mind does?” Yuma asked, “When you were your old self you were perfect because you were made to be. So far being human has caused you a lot of problems you didn’t have before.”

“That may be true, but I do not mind.” Astral said quietly, “I’ve spent my life believing that death would claim me after my mission, that would be my destiny, that it would be simple,”

Astral sat up a bit, obviously trying hard himself to prevent his own drowsiness, “but then I met you. I gained a desire to live and stay by your side. Humans are not perfect, but it has been very interesting getting to know one and being one myself. I like it.”

Yuma chuckled, “Yeah, that’s what Kaito told me. I wanted to hear it from you myself.” 

“You were worried?” Astral asked in a concerned tone. 

“Of course, I always worry about you! You make it so easy!” Yuma told him. 

Astral wiggled around on Yuma’s back, “I want to get off now.” 

“Oh don’t be difficult!” Yuma let out a big huff, believing that Astral’s stubborn nature was about to ruin the moment, but then Astral grabbed Yuma’s hand. 

“No, I feel ready to walk again. Please support me in case I fall over.” Astral said with a burst of confidence. 

“Yeah, that’s the Astral I know!” Yuma laughed, “Always such a fighter. Thanks for sticking around, I can’t imagine life without you.”

“Neither can I.” Astral agreed, “Whatever is wrong with my brain cannot take that feeling away from me.”

They both walked in silence contently until Yuma decided to bring something up. 

“You know, you called out to me when you were asleep.” Yuma said. 

Astral gave him a sharp reply, “I did not.”

“You totally did!” 

“No, you talk in your sleep. I do not.”

“Astral, I totally heard you!”

“Stop trying to trick me.”

“I’m telling the truth. You were all upset and everything, that was the saddest ‘Yuma’ I've ever heard you mutter.”

“Yuma!” 

“Yeah, kind of like that. Except less irritated sounding.”

“Yuma stop!” 

Human life was perfectly imperfect. 

They both loved it that way.


End file.
